A focused survey course with a significant dimension of oral presentation by students,
this class concentrates on some of the major works by British and American writers central
to the early 19th-century literary period that has come to be known as
Romanticism. An ongoing question for us will be this: What is Romanticism? Certainly, we
shall study the traditional definitions of this term, but we shall also consider ways in
which this label has been and can be challenged. Were Romantic writers aware of themselves
as Romantics? What degree of uniformity, in techniques and ideas, characterizes them as a
group? Did they write against one another? How is Romanticism distinctive relative to the
preceding period, yet how does it follow continuously from that against which it has been
defined? Likewise, we may ask, in what sense does Romanticism end at a certain point in
literary history? In what sense does it not?

Further queries will address the national designations that shape the title of the
course and customary divisions of literary history. First, to what extent should Romantic
writing in English be studied without reference to its European context? Second, to what
extent are American Romanticism and British Romanticism linked or parallel? To what extent
are they not? Do these differences emerge as functions of separate national milieus? In
other words, what is peculiarly American about American Romanticism, in contrast to
British Romanticism, and vice versa? Finally, is American Romanticism a viable term
in the realm of literary studies?

Another set of such questions bears on the degree to which Romanticism should be seen
as a fundamentally literary phenomenon. How integrally do the literary productions
of this period relate to the social and political preoccupations of writers, or to the
philosophical trends of the time? What are the relations between literature and its
historical context? As we extend the definitions of Romanticism beyond literature, we
shall also bring into the view the visual and musical arts of this time and attempt to
determine the connections among the various media associated with Romantic aesthetics.

Although the course focuses on major writers, attention will be devoted to so-called
minor writers as well, some of whom have only recently begun to be included in
anthologies. We shall ask not only why these major-minor categories came into being (the
dynamics of canonization), but also whether the minor figures are as artistically
satisfying as the major ones. What criteria are we applying in these judgments? Have our
tastes been molded by tradition? How does one gauge artistic worth?

Of course, students will think intensively about the content of the literature that we
study and thereby become conversant in the predominant ideas characterizing Romantic
writing. In addition, though, we will devote considerable time to the genres, forms,
techniques, and styles of these literary works. Dually attentive to the "what and
how" of Romantic literature, students will be encouraged to discern the ways in which
content and form are not necessarily separate from each other. Incidentally, it is
presumed that students in an upper-level English course can conduct productive
close-readings of literature; these skills will not be systemically reviewed in class.
Rather, we shall discuss different interpretive approaches, or methodologies of reading,
whenever they surface as relevant matters.

Oral Flag: (Remove Oral flag effective fall semester 2004)

Students in this class will be expected to give at least one minor presentation (10
minutes or so) and one major presentation (30 minutes or so) on topics either assigned by
the professor or chosen by the student and approved by the professor. Before these begin
students will spend some time discussing what they think constitutes an effective
presentation, andtogether with the professorthey will design a criteria sheet
for the class and the professor to use as they assess the presentations. An example of
such a sheet is appended hereto. A significant portion (from 10-50%) of the students
final grades will reflect their fulfillment of the established criteria for oral
presentations.

Reading:

This is a reading-intensive course. Accordingly, students are expected to devote
sufficient time to reading the assignments and ancillary material. How much is sufficient?
Probably about two hours for every class day, and then four hours over the weekend. (Many
students will likely read more.) As important as the amount to be read is the care that
should be put into the reading. Read actively, not passively: look up unfamiliar words,
take notes on the readings, write down questions or comments to share with the class, and,
most importantly, think about what youve read. Occasionally, reading quizzes will be
given at the beginning of class.

There are three types of reading in this course. The assigned pieces should definitely
be read and studied before class. If you have time and interest, reading some of the
suggested pieces will enhance your understanding of the subject. Finally, you ought to get
into the habit, if you are not already, of discovering and reading secondary material
related to the assigned reading. Outside reading of this sort makes for excellent
contributions to class discussion and superlative essays.

Discussion: Students are expected to play an informed, interesting role in
class discussions. The professor is not to be seen as the infallible, sole vessel of
knowledge in the room: education is a cooperative venture. Routinely, particular students
will be assigned particular study questions or small research tasks for the following
class.

Testing: Aside from reading quizzes, there will be a midterm and final exam,
which both will have diverse sorts of questions designed to evaluate your retention and
comprehension of the readings and of the information presented and discussed in class.

Writing:

As an upper-level course, this class entails the writing of papers. Most of the
required writing will not be in-class writing. Instead, three formal papers of varying
lengths and kinds will be required. Two of them will be rather short (3-4 pages); one will
be more ambitious (5-7 pages) and will call for some secondary sources to be integrated.
The two shorter papers will have an assigned topic (there may be a choice), while the
longer paper will take for its subject a topic of the students informed, guided
selection.

Essays should be submitted on time; in fairness to the rest of the class who turn in
their papers on time, a lack of timeliness will result in a lowered grade for the late
paper.

Be sure to spend plenty of time on your papers, especially the early stages of
note-taking and drafting. Satisfactory papers have usually been subject to several rounds
of revision and to sound proofreading. The amount of time behind a paper is, more often
than not, what determines its quality and grade. Given the pace and level of the course,
revision of submitted papers is not an optiondo your best the first time around.

All papers should be formatted according to MLA guidelines. Consult the MLA Handbook if
you do not remember these guidelines.

We will collectively address in class what makes an A paper an A paper, a D paper a D
paper, and so forth. It should be said at the outset, though, that to attain a
satisfactory gradea Can essay should fulfill the aim of the assignment,
address the question posed if the topic is assigned, and do more than merely summarize or
superficially comment on the topic (that is, it should move beyond the immediately evident
into the analytical and interpretive). Additionally, it should not suffer from careless
errors, major grammatical or mechanical problems, poor organization, or sloppiness in
content or form. The papers that are better than satisfactory are those that show
rhetorical strength and stylistic effectiveness, a trustworthy, likable voice that
instructs us. The very best papers have all this, and more. They create knowledge and make
it meaningful and pleasurable.

Plagiarism:

Some plagiarism is unambiguously so. Do not use others work as your own. Do not,
for instance, get a paper, or parts of a paper, from technological resources, another
student, a book or article, or a secret essay file maintained by a student group.
Moreover, do not use others words or ideas as your own; you may use them, but only
through quotation, paraphrase, or summary, and then be sure to cite and document them
correctly. Do not submit the same paper for two different courses, and do not submit a
paper that you have written for another course.

There are some gray areas, though. If you are ever in doubt, ask your professor or
another qualified person to help you make a judgment call. The "common
knowledge" criterion is tricky, partly because it is dependent on context: knowledge
common to whom? Generally, the more detailed the informationespecially if it does
not occur frequently, in more than several sourcesthe more likely it is that you
should cite your source.

The department and university take plagiarism very seriously.

Other Policies: Attendance is expected. More than three absences, whatever the
reason, is not acceptable and will affect the final grade. Students should show up
prepared, having done the reading and brought the pertinent book(s) to class. Discourteous
behavior (or worse) will not be tolerated.

Students assessment of professor: Students should feel free to discuss
with the professor ways in which the class succeeds or does not. At the end of the term,
students will be asked to provide an evaluation of the course. Hopefully, most of the
remarks will be positive ones, but each student will be required to find one aspect of the
course that he or she would improve and then to elaborate on how that improvement might be
implemented.

Professors assessment of students:

Attendance will be considered when I formulate students final grades.

Active, meaningful, informed, and interesting contributions to discussion are expected,
as stated above. Dont dominate every class, and dont talk just to be talking,
but do make comments and ask (and answer) questions. Try not to be silent. At the end of
the term, I will have a strong sense of who has contributed sufficiently, or stellarly, or
sullenly. These factors can affect your grade positively or negatively, as the case may
be.

Short reading quizzes given irregularly will allow me to determine who is or is not
doing the reading.

The two exams will enable me to see how well students have learned and understood the
material: different sorts of questions will appear on the exams in order to accommodate
different sorts of testers.

The criteria for paper grading are outlined above and will be discussed further in
class.

Students should take their oral presentations seriously, for since the course is
flagged such, the presentations will constitute a significant portion of students
final grades.

Grade distribution:

Attendance and participation are simply expected. A paucity of either could lower your
final grade.

Quizzes: A passing average is expected. A failing average may lower your final grade.
An outstanding average might bolster a borderline grade.

Minor presentation: 10% Major presentation: 20%

Midterm: 15%% Final (not cumulative): 15%

Short papers: 10% each Longer paper: 20%

Required textbooks:

You do not have to buy these exact editions, but you do have to show up to class with
all of the assigned readings at the ready. You may have some problems following
page-number citations, but if youre up for it, Im okay with it.

*Supplementary handouts (for example, some of Emily Dickinsons poems) will be
distributed every so often. A packet of handouts, collectively an assigned text, may have
to be purchased later in the semester.

Ed. Duncan Wu, Romanticism: An Anthology, 0631204814

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, 0140433627

Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, 0451526368

R.W. Emerson, Self-reliance and Other Essays, 0486277909

H.D. Thoreau, Walden and Other Writings, 055321246X

E.A. Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales, 0451526759

N. Hawthorne, Selected Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne, 0449300129

F. Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 0451526732

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 0553211161

You may also need a dictionary, a MLA Handbook, and a handbook of literary terms.

Note:

Last day to add on-campus classes without Blue Class-Permit Forms:

Last day to drop on-campus classes with tuition refund:

Last day to withdraw from classes:

Envisioned Schedule (subject to revision):

Note: Always read the biographical sections on all assigned writers.

Note also: The Wu anthology has excellent supplementary readings, which you should get
in the habit of enjoying.

Oral Flag: Class presentations will be scheduled one or two weeks into the term,
and the minor presentations will begin shortly thereafter. Student presentations have not
been listed in the reading schedule below, but they will soon become part of the regular
schedule and will coincide closely with the reading scheduled for that week.

Monday, August 28: Introduction to Course

Wednesday, August 30: Introduction to Romanticism

Reading assignment for today (20 pages or so):

Edmund Burke: "Obscurity" from A Philosophical

Enquiry into the Origins of our Ideas of the

Sublime and the Beautiful and "On Englishness"

from Reflections on the Revolution in France

Thomas Paine: selections from The Rights of Man

William Godwin: selections from Political Justice

Mary Wollstonecraft: selections from A
Vindication of the

Rights of Woman

Hannah More: "The Sorrows of Yamba"

William Cowper: "On Slavery" from The Task

Friday, September 1: William Blake: Songs of Innocence & Songs of Experience

Monday, September 4: Labor Day Holiday

Wednesday, September 6: William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Friday, September 8: William Wordsworth: Preface to the Lyrical Ballads (1802);

EN 303, 304, and 305 to be required of all Bachelor of Arts and Communication Arts and
Literature majors, and EN 402 required of Communication Arts and Literature majors, call
upon students to make connections among texts of certain time periods (and those before
and after) and between literature and history. Their success relies on discussion and oral
presentation of research. EN 402 specifically requires students to teach lessons in the
classroom. For all the above courses oral communication skills will be fostered and
developed in these courses in particular in the English curriculum.

These courses merit the writing flag in that they:

--have section enrollments of 25 or fewer*; they are thus relatively small classes that
therefore allow for clear guidance and feedback from the instructor

--require students to make at least one individual and several small group oral
presentations in these courses. These presentations will be based on research designed and
constructed by the students themselves.

--require the instructor to provide direction for these projects, offer support and
advice on oral presentation skills, and assess student accomplishment.

--demand student accountability and quality work. The total percentage of the grade
based on these presentations and discussions will vary by instructor but will be at least
10% of the final grade. As students must complete all assignments for these courses, those
who do not complete the oral communication components will not pass these courses.

These courses include requirements and learning activities that promote students
abilities to

a. earn significant course credit through extemporaneous oral presentations.
Participation in class discussion is a requirement of many courses in the department, but
in the literary history courses a significant percentage of the final grade for the course
will be based upon both structured formal research presentations as well as daily
discussion of the texts of the course. Please see the attached syllabi (Appendix A) for
EN304 and 402 for detailed descriptions of the assignments. In the attached examples, the
oral presentation component constitutes approximately 20% of the final grade. In EN 402
prospective teachers will present lessons before the class and instructor. This portion of
the course constitutes approximately 30% of the final grade.

b. understand the features and types of speaking in their disciplines. The oral
research presentations demonstrate the key skills of professionals in the fields of
literature and writing. They call upon students to understand, organize, and clearly
communicate complex information in an informal setting. This is the skill of the teacher,
of the student in the graduate seminar, and of the writer at a writing conference. The
presentations will therefore be assessed on their understanding of the research, the
organization of the presentation and the clarity of the delivery. To prepare students for
this task, instructors will address the key features of speaking in the discipline, the
various contexts for oral communication, and the skills required of the presenter.

c. adapt their speaking to field-specific audiences. Students will have the
background (terminology, research skills, reading ability, organizational skills) to
succeed in oral presentations because these skills are inculcated in EN 290 Literary
Studies. They will

apply these skills before an audience of well-read, informed students of literature.
Their presentation of research will include introducing sources, citing (and reciting)
lines of verse or text; contextualizing comments; responding to questions and criticism
from the audience.

d. receive appropriate feedback from teachers and peers, including suggestions for
improvement. While individual instructors may vary in the forms of their responses to
student oral presentations, all do provide a variety of methods of feedback. Attached
(Appendix B) is a presentation rubric handed out to students in advance of the first
presentation. Students will have the opportunity to ask questions during the class period
and may offer feedback afterward via a brief response rubric.

e. make use of the technologies used for research and speaking in the field.
Students will be expected to make use of the on-line databases (J-STOR, ERIC, e.g.) and
may choose to use such presentation software as Powerpoint or to make use of networked
classroom facilities. Students will also be encouraged to use the internet as part of the
research process.

f. learn the conventions of evidence, format, usage, and documentation in their fields.
Students will be expected to use textual evidence to support claims, introduce and
integrate primary and secondary research materials; and to speak correctly and
appropriately for the audience. Often presentations will include student-produced handouts
that will provide annotated bibliographies or other directions for further research.

If students complete all of the above successfully, their success will enhance their
final grades.

*Note to department: Pending department approval

EN 303-305 ask students to make connections between literature and the social and
cultural history of the past two centuries and between historical periods. The classroom
will be a place for students to theorize and to express their ideas and connections and
for the instructor to amplify the information presented. Thus, instructors will be

English Department Oral Communication Flag: An Introduction for Students

This course is designed to satisfy the requirements of the WSU University Studies
program by providing you with experiences in oral communication aimed at enhancing your
skills as a communicator. As a student in this course you will:

a. Earn significant credit through extemporaneous oral presentations. Much of your
success in the course will be determined by the ways you communicate your ideas and
research to others. This is a crucial facet of the work of the discipline for
professionals, academicians, and students alike. The percentage of the grade devoted to
presentations will vary, but it will be impossible to earn an A in a course without a
successful presentation.

b. Understand the features and types of speaking in the discipline of English. Scholars
of literature and writing will find themselves presenting their ideas and research at
professional conferences, before audiences of their peers, and to audiences outside the
discipline. Among the types of speaking expected of professionals we find the following
most common: oral presentations of research, responding to questions, public readings,
delivery of speeches or talks on a variety of topics, and classroom presentations of texts
and research.

c. Adapt your speaking to field-specific audiences. Specialized audiences in the field
of literature and language study have specific requirements that must be met if they are
to fully engage the ideas or research of a speaker. We will address these in class and
they will constitute a significant portion of the grade for oral presentations.

d. Receive appropriate feedback from teachers and peers, including suggestions for
improvement. While much of what we consider feedback for oral presentations in our
discipline amounts to audience questions and polite applause, the criteria for successful
presentations in the course will be made explicit and your performance will be evaluated,
in some cases by peers exclusively, in others by the teacher alone, and in others by some
combination of the two. There will be formative critique to ensure a good performance as
well as summative critique that evaluates the performance.

e. Learn the conventions of evidence, format, usage, and documentation in literary
studies. The course will introduce you to the differences between oral and written
conventions, emphasizing the ways in which oral communicators use textual and research
evidence in speeches and presentations of various forms specific to the field.

English Department Oral Communication Flag: An Introduction for Students

This course is designed to satisfy the requirements of the WSU University Studies
program by providing you with experiences in oral communication aimed at enhancing your
skills as a communicator. As a student in this course you will:

a. Earn significant credit through extemporaneous oral presentations. Much of your
success in the course will be determined by the ways you communicate your ideas and
research to others. This is a crucial facet of the work of the discipline for
professionals, academicians, and students alike. The percentage of the grade devoted to
presentations will vary, but it will be impossible to earn an A in a course without a
successful presentation.

b. Understand the features and types of speaking in the discipline of English. Scholars
of literature and writing will find themselves presenting their ideas and research at
professional conferences, before audiences of their peers, and to audiences outside the
discipline. Among the types of speaking expected of professionals we find the following
most common: oral presentations of research, responding to questions, public readings,
delivery of speeches or talks on a variety of topics, and classroom presentations of texts
and research.

c. Adapt your speaking to field-specific audiences. Specialized audiences in the field
of literature and language study have specific requirements that must be met if they are
to fully engage the ideas or research of a speaker. We will address these in class and
they will constitute a significant portion of the grade for oral presentations.

d. Receive appropriate feedback from teachers and peers, including suggestions for
improvement. While much of what we consider feedback for oral presentations in our
discipline amounts to audience questions and polite applause, the criteria for successful
presentations in the course will be made explicit and your performance will be evaluated,
in some cases by peers exclusively, in others by the teacher alone, and in others by some
combination of the two. There will be formative critique to ensure a good performance as
well as summative critique that evaluates the performance.

e. Learn the conventions of evidence, format, usage, and documentation in literary
studies. The course will introduce you to the differences between oral and written
conventions, emphasizing the ways in which oral communicators use textual and research
evidence in speeches and presentations of various forms specific to the field.

English Department Oral Communication Flag: An Introduction for Students

This course is designed to satisfy the requirements of the WSU University Studies
program by providing you with experiences in oral communication aimed at enhancing your
skills as a communicator. As a student in this course you will:

a. Earn significant credit through extemporaneous oral presentations. Much of your
success in the course will be determined by the ways you communicate your ideas and
research to others. This is a crucial facet of the work of the discipline for
professionals, academicians, and students alike. The percentage of the grade devoted to
presentations will vary, but it will be impossible to earn an A in a course without a
successful presentation.

b. Understand the features and types of speaking in the discipline of English. Scholars
of literature and writing will find themselves presenting their ideas and research at
professional conferences, before audiences of their peers, and to audiences outside the
discipline. Among the types of speaking expected of professionals we find the following
most common: oral presentations of research, responding to questions, public readings,
delivery of speeches or talks on a variety of topics, and classroom presentations of texts
and research.

c. Adapt your speaking to field-specific audiences. Specialized audiences in the field
of literature and language study have specific requirements that must be met if they are
to fully engage the ideas or research of a speaker. We will address these in class and
they will constitute a significant portion of the grade for oral presentations.

d. Receive appropriate feedback from teachers and peers, including suggestions for
improvement. While much of what we consider feedback for oral presentations in our
discipline amounts to audience questions and polite applause, the criteria for successful
presentations in the course will be made explicit and your performance will be evaluated,
in some cases by peers exclusively, in others by the teacher alone, and in others by some
combination of the two. There will be formative critique to ensure a good performance as
well as summative critique that evaluates the performance.

e. Learn the conventions of evidence, format, usage, and documentation in literary
studies. The course will introduce you to the differences between oral and written
conventions, emphasizing the ways in which oral communicators use textual and research
evidence in speeches and presentations of various forms specific to the field.